Business Plan Free Tips

Follow these tips for greater success finding funding with your new business plan:

Know Your Industry

During your research phase, take a good amount of time to research the industry your business will operate within, even if it is one you are already familiar with. Read articles, industry reports, and study competitors deeply. All of this information should better inform the industry analysis in your business plan which proves your understanding to funders. Furthermore, if you will operate within two industries, make sure to study both. For example, Edible Arrangements, a maker of fruit "bouquets" of flowers, competes within the floral industry in a sense, and is also part of the large gift industry.

Estimate Cost of Goods Sold Conservatively

If you find that an industry average cost of goods sold for your type of business is 50% of revenues, think twice before simply writing in your plan that your business "will have a 40% cost of goods sold because of additional efficiencies". Generally, efficiencies are created over time through learning and also because of a company's growth and additional scale. Businesses do not generally start out as more efficient than incumbent competitors. Unless you have a silver bullet operational or pricing method, assume your cost of good sold rate will be higher and not lower than the industry average as you start out.

Summarize Your Results

Within the financial plan, show a summary of the growth you expect over the next five years with more than just sales and net profit projections. Include metrics such as the number of customers or clients, the number of employees, the number of products sold or services rendered, or other statistics relevant to your type of business. These type of non-financial metrics will give readers a better understanding of what type of impact your business will have as it grows.

Finish Your Plan Today With Our Quick & Easy Template!

If you want to create your own business plan quickly and easily, we now offer a business plan template that allows you to develop a professional business plan in hours or days, not weeks or months.

OR, We Can Develop Your Plan For You

Our professional business plan writers can create your entire business plan for you. We will make sure your business plan is sound and ready for investors so you can continue to focus on running your business.

To speak with a Growthink business plan consultant, call 800-506-5728 or complete the form below.

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Thank you very much for all of your hard work. We are very pleased with the final result of
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services in the future as we build our company.

Bryan Langslet
MediaCompound

Without Growthink’s professional help, we would never have been able to create an effective
business plan. Growthink not only did deep research on our business environment, but its
representatives also listened to us and refined their analysis to include what we had found
out through experience. We would recommend Growthink to any start-up business which does not
have a professional business plan developer on staff!